Durability

Durability is a property of equippable items that determines how much damage they can take before being broken. Broken items can always be repaired; gear never breaks permanently. Durability damage is not the same as normal damage.

When using the tracking system with the minimap NPCs that can repair will appear with an anvil () at their locations.

Being in combat at all will cause all equipped items to gradually lose durability, regardless of whether any damage is taken or dealt.

There is a small chance with each hit by your weapon that it will lose 1 durability point.

There is a small chance with each spell cast that you will lose 1 durability point to your weapon.

There is a small chance with each hit absorbed by your armor that it will lose 1 durability point.

When you die, 10% durability is lost on all equipped items (that have a durability rating). This is 10% of maximum durability, not remaining durability. You will not lose 10% durability on death if you are killed in PvP combat by another player (if a PvP flagged guard or other NPC kills you, you still lose durability) or if your death is suicide through using an item or spell that kills you (this excludes environmental damage, such as falling) or if the death is due to an encounter's mechanic (like tanking Steelbreaker with him dying as the last member - Meltdown).

When you use the services of a Spirit Healer, you lose 25% durability on all equipped items and items in your bags, on top of the 10% durability loss on your equipped items you already lost when you died.

It is possible to use a macro or Equipment Manager to remove damageable equipment if you know you’re about to die (such as if you’re falling or mid-wipe) to save yourself some or all of a repair bill but such macros will not remove all items while in combat (only changeable slots, like weapons, shields, ranged weapons; Relics do not take damage so they don't need removing) but even a few items removed will save a little. Such macros will not remove ANY items if you do not have AT LEAST the minimum number of slots free in your bags as items you’re trying to remove (there are 11 damageable equipment slots, 8 armor slots and up to 3 additional: main-hand, off-hand, and ranged).

From Blizzard: "Items remain at full effectiveness until they have no durability. Their power does not degrade."[1]

When the durability on a specific item drops below 25%, a small stick figure (looks like an armored soldier) appears below the Mini-Map and the corresponding part of the stick figure (head, shoulders, chest, etc.) appears in yellow.

When the durability on a specific item reaches 0%, the corresponding part of the stick figure (head, shoulders, chest, etc.) appears in red. Once the durability of the item reaches 0%, the player can still wear or wield the item, but he does not receive any stat benefits (stats, resistances or armor). If a weapon breaks though, you fight as if unarmed. Items cannot permanently break!

Note: if the broken item is a set item, the set bonuses will still be active.

The maximum durability of an item depends on its quality, its type (slot, armor type, weapon type) and for items of level 28 and lower also on item level. The tables below show the durability of items of item level 29 and higher.

For all 60 possible combinations of type, quality and armor class, this formula correctly calculates the durability for 57 combinations. For three combinations the predicted durability is either 5 points too high or 5 points too low:

There is a similar formula that can be used to calculate the durability of weapons and shields which correctly calculates the durability for all weapons, except for epic two-handers and shields, for which the value is 5 points too low:

At the moment the only legendary items with durability that are in game are two-handers or one-handed axes, swords, bows or maces. However, using the known durability of these items and the formula in the previous section, it can be determined that the Cquality for legendary items must be approximately 1.68.

It is now possible to make a prediction of the durability of armor items of legendary quality, and in the same vein, the durability of the remaining types of legendary weapons: